Lights Out

Everyone's doing it—the brilliant brunette hair-color overhaul

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"There just aren't enough brunette role models," sighs bicoastal hairstylist Harry Josh, gesturing across a sea of expensive-looking blonds-in-progress at the plush Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon, where he holds court when he's in New York City. Today, Josh—the mane man of Gisele, Karolina Kurkova, and Drew Barrymore—is attempting to reverse what he calls the "L.A.-ification" (i.e., inevitable blonding) of the latest acolyte to make her way into his chair: Carmen Electra. "I dreamt about this color last night," he says. "I'm dying to bring out the real Carmen!"

To illustrate the transformation he has in mind, Josh pops a blackish strip of faux bangs atop Electra's very long, very tousled, very blond hair. The effect is dramatic. Instantly, her blue eyes deepen. She looks sophisticated, edgy. A little tough, even. But this is dark. Like, Elvira dark. No ex-Baywatch babe would ever go for it, right? Wrong. "I love it!" Electra chirps. "Let's do it!"

As it happens, within weeks of Electra's overhaul, Josh's brunette-bombshell fantasy became a widespread reality.

Perhaps due to fashion's recent dalliance in all things moody and intellectual—"You want to look artsy now, not tarty," Josh says. "Even in L.A., you want to look like a chic Manhattan girl"—brunette has become the unlikely toast of Tinseltown. In addition to light brunettes who have gone back to their deeper roots (superstrutter Daria Werbowy, Beyoncé), a slew of trademark blonds—Cameron Diaz, Claire Danes, Hilary Duff, Ashley Olsen, and Alison Lohman—have unleashed their dark sides, too.

Lindsay Lohan, the Imelda Marcos of hair color, is also taking an unusually long pit stop in Darkville, thanks to colorist Tracey Cunningham of L.A.'s Neil George Salon. "For a long time, you couldn't tell who someone was in a magazine until you looked closely. It was just blond, blond, blond," says Cunningham, who is also responsible for the latest incarnations of J.Lo and Nicole Richie. "Now everyone is asking for a change."'

If the new hue looks basic, take note: The secret to dark, rich-looking—but never flat—brown is hair that's actually not one color at all. "Older women and those who aren't naturally dark-haired need softness around the face," Cunningham says. "I do the tiniest little highlights at the hairline, and then go over the whole thing with a warm caramel gloss to keep it from looking stripey." Josh calls his technique "couture hair coloring": In a sort of reverse balliage, he paints on layer upon layer of vegetable dye for a multitonal effect that fades into a spectrum of beautiful shades.

As for Electra, after four gradual color applications over three and a half hours, the recent divorcée says, "I'm not trying to tweak other people's perception of me. I'm just doing it for myself—and I love it." Josh couldn't have said it better himself.